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Did anyone decide as a GM to flip the table on the Players?
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MadHun
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:01 pm    Post subject: Did anyone decide as a GM to flip the table on the Players? Reply with quote

I wonder if anyone as a GM have flipped the SWU and made the players imperials and the GM running the Rebels?
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Thx1138
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have fooled around with the idea but the problem was that the players I game with have grown attached to their characters they don't want to play a new one unless it is entirely necessary like if one dies. It would also be hard for players to keep the personalities of each character separate since, unlike Game master characters, the personalities of the player characters is important.
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DarthOmega
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've done this once in D&D - had the players make up a group of monster and evil aligned adventurers that attacked villages and towns, with their primary antagonist being a paladin hero.

Did it once in Star Wars set in the time shortly after the movies. The players were Imperials with two Sith on the rise to try and take the place of Sidious and Vader. Their goal overall was to take over the Imperial Remnant and destroy the New Republic.

Both games ended in failure as it seems that no group of players can actually play as evil characters without relying heavily on bad tropes (lone wolf badasses with glowing red eyes that talks with a rasp is just one example), over the top antics, and anti-social behavior. It doesn't matter how mature the group normally is, they will ALWAYS devolve into that line of thinking in an "evil campaign" for whatever reason. Outside of my own direct experiences, I've heard nothing but horror stories from other GMs about how badly their "evil campaigns" tend to go.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes. Though rather than just rebels, i also threw them against slavers, pirates and other criminals. Was more of a 8 session "One off game" just to see how the group liked it. For the first 4-5 sessions they were ok, 3 of them loved being TIE pilots, but seeing how the Empire treated its military, let alone the rest of the galaxy, kind of put them off it.. So by the 7th session, i planned one more with the group's ok, to 'wrap it up.
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MadHun
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 8:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I was thinking of not making it real easy for them to disagree and pull the campaign apart as in let them be a remnant of the imps in the outer rim being hunted by the rebels to answer for the crimes they done following orders, IE 1 group of COMPNOR. They were living high while abusing the system of getting rich. Twisted Evil
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Thx1138
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only way I can see this working is if there is a well defined hierarchy such as if the players are part of a storm trooper unit, that way it would be nearly impossible for the characters to be the lone wolf type.
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shootingwomprats
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You know this would be a fun twist. Frustrated because players keep taking Stormtrooper armor every chance they can to walk freely around the Imperial bases you worked so hard on? Fine, have them forced into a squad or forced to work with other Imperial troops. Then bring in another protagonist (pirates, Rebels, whatever). So now you force the players to work with the or possibly against the Imperials against assets they may or may not be allies. The entire time under the scrutiny of Imperial commanders. Oh the fun I could have with this idea.
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Whill
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Did anyone decide as a GM to flip the table on the Playe Reply with quote

MadHun wrote:
I wonder if anyone as a GM have flipped the SWU and made the players imperials and the GM running the Rebels?

After my immature D&D days of the late elementary and middle school years, the closest I ever came to running evil characters was running Paranoia (2e) a few times, but the whole spirit of the game is satire and comedy.

Heroes & Rogues has a section on playing Imperials and a bunch of Imperial-oriented PC templates, but even after reading that I was never sold on it. I just don't enjoy the idea of running evil PCs, but I'm old school. In WEG SW 1e, if a PC crossed over to the Dark Side, the character immediately became an NPC, there was motivation to not let your character become evil inherent in the game system. I have ran some more neutral/self-motivated campaigns such as smugglers and mercs, but Dark Side point rules still applied and in most cases the story arc involved the characters eventually becoming heroes. Other than that, there have been several characters with Imperial backgrounds who joined the Rebellion specifically because of the immoral nature of the Empire.

Many players have a natural tendency for roleplaying to be their outlet of their internal human aggressive natures even when their characters are supposed to be heroic, which probably largely comes from the D&D/video game mentality of 'kill and loot'. I feel players intentionally playing evil characters is just a recipe for disaster, but to each gaming group their own. I can tell you I have absolutely zero interest in ever running or playing in any serious campaign or even one-off adventure with evil PCs.
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MadHun
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Idea is that they were doing things under the orders of their boss who is singing like a canary and naming them for the atrocities and sinking them in front of the imperials and the rebels so they gotta come up with new IDs for their toons to survive and escape with lives, while at the same time they gonna loose their "hard earned" goods. Twisted Evil
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Whill
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MadHun wrote:
The Idea is that they were doing things under the orders of their boss who is singing like a canary and naming them for the atrocities and sinking them in front of the imperials and the rebels so they gotta come up with new IDs for their toons to survive and escape with lives, while at the same time they gonna loose their "hard earned" goods.

What's a "toon"? Roger Rabbit?
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MadHun
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 6:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

toon = character
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Whill
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 11:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah, thanks. After reading up on the term, I see that since Who framed Roger Rabbit? in the late 80s, usage of the term has expanded to include characters in MMORPGs. This is the very first time I have ever heard toon used to mean characters in a pen & paper tabletop RPGs. I have to say I hope it is not a trend that is catching on. Unless the player is playing an excessively cartoonish character, such as an anthropomorphic green bunny or something like that, if someone called a character a "toon" in my game I'd probably have to make a Willpower check to resist making a Brawling check. 8)


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Last edited by Whill on Mon Mar 09, 2015 7:25 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Savar
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 11:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rofl
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DougRed4
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I've heard it before (over on rpg.net), and one of my good friends has used it before at the table. I personally hate the term, at least when used for a pen and paper game. Add me to the list of people that hopes this will not catch on.
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DarthOmega
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 1:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't hate the term...I despise it. It really started with World of Warcraft as a derogatory term for a character because of the Warcraft style graphics, which are a bit cartoony. That's the style of the Warcraft games though and always has been, so I never understood people getting all up in arms about it. It has since spread to mean a character in any MMO, but I never knew it was spreading to pen and paper. I really hope it just dies out, along with all the other moronic internet words like 'feels' and 'bae'. Luckily in my area it hasn't caught on as a table top gaming term, and knowing the community around here, I doubt it will.

Oh and sorry for the bit of personal rant there. I just feel really strongly about using language to communicate succinctly and not dumbing it down.
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